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Come celebrate 10 years of gathering in Ontario with us!

The Headwaters Gathering started in 2007 with the intention of creating space for like minded people to come together to share skills, knowledge and inspiration with each other. The focus of the gathering is around learning and passing on the skills of living with the earth as hunters, gatherers, sustainable farmers and stewards; cultivating a deep relationship with the land and knowledge of the natural environment that supports all life. With this knowledge we can empower our ecological and cultural footprints in the modern world and become more resilient in the face of change, as individuals and as a community. If you want to learn more, click on the last tab in the next section below!

Headwaters Gathering was initially created by a team of dedicated volunteers, committed to bringing friends, naturalists, and earth based skills practitioners together to spend time learning the ways of hunter, gatherer and sustainable farmer as well as to celebrate all the gifts of nature.

The Headwaters Earth Skills Gathering is currently hosted by Sticks and Stones Wilderness School and is run in collaboration with many other organizations and talented presenters from throughout North America.

The gathering is open to anyone (including families, elderly and the disabled) who is interested in these ways regardless of your experience level.Please see the participation expectations page to make sure this is the right gathering for you. It is expected that people attending are coming to learn about and practice the skills offered in the workshops, it is not solely a social gathering, a camping trip or a music festival although all of those are part of the experience.

Everyone comes to the Headwaters Gathering at their own risk and understands there are some risks to camping and participating in the activities being offered. Everyone MUST sign a waiver of liability in order to participate. The Headwaters organizers are not liable for any injuries or damage done to personal property that may occur at the gathering.

This years gathering will be held May 4th through 7th -2137 Highway 630, Eau Claire, ON Directions will be sent along with your welcome package upon registration. To register for this event, you can click HERE for the registration form.

** You may wish to bring a little extra cash as some workshops may have a materials fee such as the knife making workshop or blacksmithing. You may also want to purchase goods from people during the community market.

YOU CAN CLICK HERE TO REGISTER/PUT DOWN A DEPOSIT TO SECURE YOUR PLACE!

Your fee goes towards pre-gathering planning and administration such as the web page, insurance, firewood, supplies for stewardship project and supplies for hosting the event.

On top of your registration fee you are also expected to help with camp chores such as: camp clean up, splitting firewood, setting up washing stations, cleaning outhouses, etc. You will be assigned a work crew upon arrival. All attendees are also expected to help out with the group stewardship project. You can register HERE.

Many hands make for light work

In 2007 a group of friends, sharing common interests in earth based skills, decided to come together and host a weekend gathering to share and grow in a way that is familiar to our bodies and senses. To create a small village, support each other and the land and thus ourselves as a social experiment that harkened on times of old. The participants at the gatherings have come from a variety of cultural backgrounds and ancestries. No matter where our shared ancestral roots come from, coming together in a healthy way to support each other and leave the land healthier than it was found, particularly in habitats that had Spring water flowing from them is something that all people have in common. So now each Spring we come together and celebrate the season and the Equinox, the healthy habitats that still to this day, provide abundant Spring Water from the Headwaters of various watersheds and continue to support each other’s learning about and empowering our own ecological footprints.

The first gathering was held on a farm in the Credit River Watershed, where 50 or so friends came together, shared there passions with each other and then planted 50,000 heads of garlic for the farmer who let us use their land to host the gathering.

This pattern of collaborating with landowners to host the gatherings has been an instrumental part of the experience of Headwaters. Leaving the place better/healthier/more ecologically sound then we found it, has been the consistent theme.

Migrating north along the Niagara Escarpment, the gatherings have been hosted on a number of different farms, each having its own stewardship project in accordance with the ecological needs of the property. Among the ‘Headwaters’ of the Credit, Saugeen, Nottawasaga and the Beaver River Watersheds the gatherings have been hosted within some of the last wild places among southern Ontario. Each of which has been stewarded by everyone coming together to learn, grow and share the skills they love to preserve.

It is a legacy we are all very proud of. And the legacy lives on…

In 2016, Headwaters was hosted among the South Muskoka River Watershed, on a little spring fed ‘Headwaters’ river. All of the headwater streams originating from each of these locations feeds into The Great rivers, of North Eastern, North America, where for eons the indigenous people had tended, stewarded and cared for as if they were the source of life themselves….

It is our Vision as a proto-village to continue this meaningful work and give back to the land that regenerates all life, like the purity of the ‘Headwater Springs’ that have inspired us all.

HEADWATERS FACILITIES

Participants sleep in tents they provide themselves and come self sufficient to cook your own food as you would for a camping trip.

Saturday night we will hold a community pot luck. If you wish to contribute please put your name on the container your dish is as well as any pertinent food allergy/preferences information such as: contains: peanuts, dairy, wheat, fish, etc.

The camp area is not next to the cars, be prepared to hike your gear in!!

There will be a dish & hand wash station outside and a fire for cooking.

Participants are required to bring their own dishes, food, and cook stove if needed.

The site has clean drinking water available and porto-potties / outhouses for going to the washroom.

There are NO showers or inside washroom facilities, conditions are basic.

There is a river to swim in for basic bathing needs –please no soap at all in the water.

HEADWATERS SPECIAL EVENTS

Morning circle – The whole community comes together to greet the day, hear about the days workshops and any community announcements

Trading Blanket – On one night of the gathering we come together around the fire where people have the opportunity to trade home made goods, preserves from their garden and other special items. Make sure you bring something to trade as this is a great event.

The Market Place – One afternoon we will open the market place. People are welcome to bring out a blanket with goods they wish to trade or sell.

Archery Competition – Anyone with a homemade stick bow is welcome to compete in the archery competition for a chance to hold the Headwaters Quiver for the next year and the honour of coming back to defend their title the following years gathering. Handmade stick bow only!

The Stewardship Event – Every gathering the whole community participates in an event to give back to the land and leave it better than we have found it. This may include: tree planting, ecological restoration projects, removing invasive species, gardening, etc. PLEASE BRING: A SHOVEL, PRUNERS & WORK GLOVES TO HELP OUT

PRESENTER APPLICATION

Got some Skills you want to share? This is where you start if you are thinking of contributing to the event as a guest presenter/instructor and would like to showcase what value you will bring to the gathering. Click the button below to get started!

VOLUNTEER APPLICATION

Volunteers are an important part of the Gathering each year and we invite all those that have volunteered in the past as well as those that are interested in helping out over the course of the weekend! Click the button below to get started!